State of Awe Digest #35 | Don’t be cheugy, be timeless
The Latest Wonders in Experience Design, Festivals and Gatherings
July 18, 2021
Our aphorism to help with the times: the most transformative moments in life are those in which you indulge not in pleasure but in suffering. It is a paradox of modern experiences. (see morsels for some scientific backup)
State of Awe is a regular trend briefing from experience designer, Jordan Kallman and event brand curator, Tyson Villeneuve at The Social Concierge.
New to the digest? Understand OUR BELIEF and dial in OUR INTENTION.
For curious subscribers, you can find all previous digests here. A catalogue of current and future topic areas can be found here.
Insight Map 🔮 The Digest Summary
House of Focus: the passé label your experiences should try to avoid;
Experience Design Strategy: the peak-end rule and how it creates memories;
Arena of Design Thinking: the dimensional elements of belonging;
Arena of Economics: emerging financial models of the next decade;
Fads and Crazes: how the DAO organizing structure is starting to take form, and what it means for gathering design;
Meaningful Virtual Experiences: a long list of interesting things from the online gathering space;
As is tradition, one aphorism, six hot morsels, four beautiful instas (in visual banner form) and our polite reminder to share this digest with an event mind who you know;
Note: the next edition of the digest will be delayed. See the End Note.
House of Focus 🎯 The Cheugy Event Label
Can you pinpoint what is cool anymore?
Since we began pondering the experience economy implications of our increasingly fluid social structures and cultural norms (from digest #22 onward, most recently digest #32), our thoughts continue to be reflected in pop culture articles.
We see this in the death of content genres, the youthful embrace of polywork arrangements, the breaking façade of white, male monoculture broadcasting, and Gen Z alt subculture variety.
Enter “cheugy”. Not quite basic, not quite uncool, not necessarily even a negative. A newly defined word that represents someone or something that is just slightly off trend. Possibly even trying (too hard) to gain back their previous “in crowd” stature.
Shaped by infinite consumer choice, molten identities, boundless variants of style, and fast-forming beliefs, we are watching the rise of an “unshared reality” of disparate tastes, fast meme culture, and hyperreal personalization. Becoming cheugy happens in a heartbeat.
We present experience economy Exhibit A:
The insight: even cheugy might be cheugy. Before a subculture has fully formed, it gets co-opted by the masses and passed on by the influential. As experiences are both a collective subculture and an identity signal, we are not exempt. And with the experience economy racing back to live formatting, what events, festivals and gatherings are going to fall prey? How do you prevent a slip into the passé? Remember that an injection of timelessness design principles can help avoid the label.
Experience Design Strategy 🏔️ Endings and Culmination
How much focus do you place on the end of an event?
Our approach: a lot.
The peak-end rule is a psychological bias uncovered in the ‘90s that will warp an individual’s perception of past events and memories. Ultimately, we remember a memory or judge an experience based on how we felt at the peak moments, as well as how we felt at the end.
📖 Summit stories. Naturally, experiences need positive emotional peaks to be remarkable. But we argue that peaking guest emotions at the end of an experience can have the strongest lasting impressions.
🚪 Keepin’ the vibe. There are hacks that can be used to keep attendees from leaving an event early; programming and rituals that fall at the end of the schedule are obvious. One of the lesser known tactics? Provide spaces of escape for guests during the experience, allowing introverts room to recharge. This will allow everyone to optimize their energy over a longer period, culminating at the end.
The insight: we believe in the spectacular. And spectacular experiences almost always end in a culminating moment. Even the softest or most organic experiences need closure. Always think about how you can conclude strong, so your guests leave with a lasting impression that lingers in their minds in the days to come.
Arena of Design Thinking 💬 The Levers of Belonging
We know that “othering”, or marginalizing based on differences, is a dangerous (and common) behaviour. How do we design for the opposite? The Institute of Design at Stanford University created a one-page resource to help define the dimensions:
The insight: much like any human emotion, belonging has levers that we can pull on to achieve an effect in others. Nicely summarized here, these levers are tactile and include how we arrange our spaces, what objects we decide to integrate, the clothing we choose to elevate, the rituals we establish and the roles we put each other in. It is a nice mental model when thinking about an event or experience you want others to feel they belong to.
Arena of Economics 💰 The Emerging Models of the Next Decade
An executive roundtable of event leaders unpacked insights on the experience economy’s comeback. Key takeaways? The future is fluid, and the core business models of the past are going to be challenged. Taking on the precarious task of predicting, the future-friendly Peter Diamandis outlined seven likely sources of economic evolution. Three are highly relevant to experiences:
🌍 Worldbuilding is hot. As an example, in the past six months the virtual platform, The Sandbox, has sold $5.5m of digital property rights.
⚖️ Virtuous suffering. We are no longer looking for simple pleasures from our experiences, the future growth engines will be driven by experiences that push our limits and turn our traumas into transformation.
🛢️ Community-Fuelled. For those following the most recent web3 developments, the DAO (digest #33) is emerging as a new age method of economic organization.
The insight: as the pandemic chaos begins to clear, the winning innovations are also crystallizing. It is an exciting time for experiential entrepreneurs, as so many of these new mechanical models suit the gathering venture seeker. If you’re looking for emerging methods of growth, your tickets to ride are going to be community-driven, digital, and transformative events and experiences.
Fads and Crazes ⚡ NFTs and DAOs for Experiences
While the non-fungible token economy continues to develop rapidly, a new entrant in the web3 community movement is coming into the picture: DAOs.
Festival starter. As an industry already comfortable with liquid, freelance collaboration this new economic structure holds potential for large-scale community gatherings. Community leadership is on the rise, and new decentralized organizing structures are not far behind.
Organizational behaviour. The music industry is thinking that these decentralized organizations will be as disruptive as MTV was in the late ‘80s. A new community-led funding model?
Frontiers of belonging. The internet continues to challenge our idea of place and the traditional ways of thinking about where we belong. And the DAO is the next iteration of this evolution. This economic gathering tool is at the leading edge of digital membership (deep read).
The insight: this blockchain technology space might seem odd to some, but it truly is beginning to develop useful tools for the future. Also, in case you missed it, the first, in-person immersive travel experience NFT sold for $70,000 USD. Also, Broadway goes NFT. Exciting days ahead.
Meaningful Virtual Experiences 📱The Latest and Greatest
Your hot hits from a busy two weeks in the Metaverse:
Digital euphoria. The story of online raves and virtual club culture, and how it came to be during the pandemic. The feature covers a few lasting, inclusive impacts these new habits will have on IRL life.
Virtual growth. VR is projected to be the fastest growing media market over the next five years. And the smart glasses revolution looks like the reason why.
Winners. A comprehensive review of ComplexLand 2.0. BTS broke their own record with 1.3m paid live stream concert viewers. TED jumps into Clubhouse, NFL joins Twitter Spaces, both with unique offerings. Roblox continues to dominate. LeBron drops sneakers in Fornite.
XR tourism. Travel, one of the most immersive experiences humans partake in (and therefore one of the most difficult to digitize), is actually showing signs of virtualization. Neat tourism examples abound.
Hot morsels that will help change the topic when you’re tired of talking about vaccines
🦒 The world’s first augmented reality zoo is proposed in Bristol. And even after Instagram stated it is no longer “photos first”, Instagram museums continue to expand.
🫂 Togetherness is ad trending.
🟢 A summary of the largest music festivals moving ahead in the US this year. Our friends over at Back of House also keep a weekly update on the festival scene going.
🎪 France has lifted all restrictions, and festivals and clubs in the UK return on July 19. Meanwhile in Japan, the Olympic and Paralympic Games might be cursed.
🍷 It’s that time… to relearn the control levers when going for work drinks.
💋 In a 13-year study involving thousands of people, hedonism-driven pleasure seekers did not enjoy life more. In fact, enjoyment declined. Here’s the philosopher’s guide to maximizing pleasure without experiencing hollowness.
End note
The combination of a long-awaited summer trip to the mountains (where wireless connections are non-existent), and a series of beastly and complex live event projects in August means we will be taking a writing break for the first time since our inception.
It is likely that regular digest writing will return in mid-August, all projects going well. But there is a chance you don’t hear from us until September begins to dawn. Apologies to any of our readers who may be disappointed by the extended absence, but we will be back with a summer season full of event reflections to talk about!
We hope you are located in a place where you can enjoy the return of safe gatherings over the weeks ahead.
As Ever,
Jordan + Tyson